


Now What?

by DeutchRemy



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25871746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeutchRemy/pseuds/DeutchRemy
Summary: What if Hopper and Joyce found El when she was sucked into the Upside Down after defeating the Demogorgon?  What then?
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Joyce Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper
Comments: 15
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

As he turns onto the dirt road, Hopper glances in the rearview mirror at the small bundle curled up on the backseat of the Blazer. He wrapped the child in his coat, so all that’s visible is her shorn head and one tiny hand fisted in the material.

He cuts the lights and drives as slowly as possible up the Byers’ long driveway, gravel crunching under the tires. The house is completely dark except for the one porch light, which illuminates his way like a beacon.

The Blazer rolls to a stop and Hopper shuts off the engine. He pats his pocket, making sure the house keys Joyce gave him are still there. They are. He undoes his seatbelt and turns around to get another look at the little girl asleep on the backseat. She looks so peaceful for a child who literally defeated a monster from another dimension before being sucked into its upside-down world of death and decay.

Hopper can only thank his lucky stars that Joyce spotted the child, unconscious and covered in goo, as he carried Will out of that awful place. He’d handed the boy to his mother and picked the little girl up. She was so limp, but she was alive.

He puts his hat on his head, a habit that cannot be broken even for a twenty-foot walk to the bungalow. There’s a slight chill in the air as he steps out of the truck. It’s a pleasant chill, not too cold, one that heralds the change of seasons.

He pulls his seat down so he can access the back. The girl hasn’t moved. Should he wake her before picking her up so she doesn’t get frightened? Or should he just pick her up and get her into the house as quickly as possible?

He opts for the latter. Just get her inside. He glances around quickly in all directions, making sure nobody’s watching from the bushes. All he can hear are the last of the season’s crickets.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Never in his wildest dreams did Hopper ever think he would be playing house, for lack of a better term, with Joyce Byers.

It was bizarre to hear the first words that came out of her mouth when she arrived back from visiting Will in the hospital:

“Did you feed her yet?”

Not “Has she eaten?” but “Did you feed her?” Like she expects him to have whipped out a bottle of breast milk that she pumped that morning before she left for work.

Dear lord. Don’t think about Joyce like that. Ever again. He composes himself. 

“Yeah. Yeah, she ate.”

“What’d you feed her?” There she goes again. This is getting really uncomfortable.

“Um, an English muffin with butter. She could barely keep her eyes open, though,” he indicates the half-eaten muffin on the end table, “I had to hold her upright. She’s completely exhausted.”

Joyce opens her mouth and he already knows what she’s going to ask now.

“You gave her a bath, right?” She asks, crouching down in front of the couch and rubbing Eleven’s soft scalp with her hand before giving her head a sniff. Like how Diane would smell Sarah’s little newborn head constantly for the first few weeks of her life. It had been like a drug to her. “Smells clean.”

“Yep, I bathed her last night before I put her to sleep. Took a while to get all that gunk off of her.” He chuckles. “Sort of had to let her soak like a stubborn casserole dish before I could scrub her.”

Joyce has seen the inside of Hopper’s trailer. Just once. And she can say for sure that he is the king of letting dirty dishes soak. Sometimes for a day or two. She smiles at the image before getting serious again. 

“So…I have to ask.” She clears her throat. “Do we…know for a fact now that she’s indeed, well…a girl? I mean, it’s just, the hair…she just passes for a boy so easily, you know, and we sort of just took the boys’ word without checking.”

“Yes, Joyce, she’s a girl. I can confirm.” 

“So then, I guess it’s safe to say that this is Terry Ives’ baby?” There’s a hint of sadness in her voice that Hopper detects easily. It’s like survivor’s guilt; she got her baby boy back but Terry Ives never even got to hold her baby girl. 

“Well,” he scratches his head, trying not to think about lost little girls or grief-stricken parents, “I’m gonna head back to the lab tomorrow, see if I can get her medical records. I mean, surely they include her parentage. But she’s definitely a girl, she’s in the correct age range, and I don’t know about you but I do see a resemblance to Terry. So yeah, I think it’s safe to say.”

Joyce purses her lips. “Um…we need to decide what we’re gonna do. You know, with her. I mean, I’d love to keep her. Jonathan would love having a little sister and Will would like having a sibling closer to his own age.”

“No. Out of the question. For now at least.”

“But -.”

“Look, the feds are gonna come knocking on your door in a few days. We need to make sure she’s out of here by then.”

“Oh? And where will she go? To your trailer? They could be re-bugging that place as we speak, Hop.”

“Remember -,” he lowers his voice to a whisper, “remember my granddad’s hunting cabin?”

“You mean the place we almost burned down when we were fifteen trying to deep fry hotdogs? Yeah, I remember.”

“The feds can’t possibly know it exists, and even if they did they’d never be able to locate it. It’d be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

“You’ll have to clean it up, first. I mean, if it hasn’t turned into one giant cobweb by now. Make sure it still has running water. Even then, Hop, what are you gonna do? Raise her in that cabin?”

Hopper pinches the bridge of his nose. “Temporary, Joyce. It’ll only be temporary. We’re still flying by the seat of our pants here. She’ll stay here for a day, two days tops, while I clean up the cabin, then I’ll bring her, and we’ll figure out what we do from there. The important thing is making sure she’s in the safest location possible until we can figure out a permanent solution.”

Joyce rubs Eleven’s downy head again and gives a slight pout. “I’d still like to keep her.”

“I know you do.” He sighs. “But she’s safest with me.”

Joyce can’t help but wonder if Hopper is just making excuses so he can keep the girl himself. She’s always detected a hint of jealousy towards her. Jealousy over her kids still being alive. Jealousy that translated into snide remarks and even slight apathy when she first reported Will missing.

She’s reminded of when she was a kid and her dog died. She begged and begged her parents to take her to the pound to get a new one, but they refused. She knew that the only way they’d accept another pet in the house would be if she happened upon an animal in need and brought it home. So for the next few months she would walk home along the train tracks, or past the dumpster corral in the part of town that doesn’t get trash pickup, in the hopes that they would yield an abandoned kitten or even a baby squirrel blown from its nest.

Is this what Hop is trying to do? She wonders. He wants another daughter so he’s determined to keep this little stray girl he happened upon? Doesn’t want to let her have the girl because she’s fortunate enough to still have both of her own children?

Her growing sense of annoyance is tamped down only by her gradual understanding of his position. While at the moment she can’t imagine ever wanting to replace her babies, she realizes she can’t speak for someone whose child is really and truly dead.

So while she can say now, with both of her boys alive and thriving, that she could never replace them, she truly doesn’t know what it feels like to have a need to nurture but no *one* to nurture.

So she sighs and says “You’re right. She’s safest with you.” Then, to show him there’s no hard feelings, follows up with “But only if I get to be her aunty.”

Hopper’s tempted to correct her and say that Eleven still needs a mother, regardless of who she lives with, but that would be crossing way too many boundaries way too soon. So he just smiles and gently strokes the backs of his fingers down the sleeping girl’s cheek. 

Joyce stands. “Well, I need to be getting back to the hospital. I told Will I’d be back in an hour so I could have lunch with him in his room; I don’t want him to worry.”

“Okay. Just remember, no phone calls to here, unless it’s an absolute emergency. And stay safe.”

“Always.”

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Now this is a damn cute sight, Joyce thinks to herself as she shuts the front door quietly behind her. 

Hopper is sitting on the couch, fast asleep, his head against the back, mouth slightly open and turned upwards towards the ceiling. There’s a plate with a half-eaten ham sandwich balanced precariously on his left leg.

The little girl is sleeping on the other end of the couch. She’s wrapped up in a blanket, but one tiny stocking-clad foot that’s peeking out is pressed firmly against Hopper’s thigh, as though she wants to stretch out but keeps meeting resistance.

The TV is on, illuminating the otherwise-dark room.

He must have rummaged through her stuff - not that she minds - because balanced on his right leg is one of her old flower-paged planners with matching flowery ballpoint pen.

Joyce picks the small notebook up gently so as not to wake the man and examines his chicken-scratch. It’s a list. Well, two lists, actually.

FOR THE CABIN  
food (healthy + waffles + treats)  
lightbulbs  
batteries  
sheets/blankets/pillowcases  
curtains/blinds  
locks  
shower curtain/bathmat   
toiletries (tp, toothbrushes/paste, mouthwash, shampoo/cond, soap, bubble bath, hairbrush, towels)  
cleaning supplies (bleach, toilet cleaner, dish soap, dish towels, mop/bucket)  
med supplies (cold med, cough med, runny nose med, tylenol, antacid, upset tummy med, thermometer, vicks, allergy med)   
laundry detergent  
TV

FOR THE KID  
clothes/pajamas/shoes  
toys  
books  
children’s vitamins  
teddy bear/something to cuddle  
games/puzzles/coloring books/crayons/markers  
nightlight

The lists are cute, and give Joyce another chance to see the domestic side of Hopper, yet she can’t help but be envious. Is it wrong that she wants Eleven for herself despite Hopper undoubtedly being better-equipped to keep the little girl safe? She’d certainly have a more stable life with her and her boys than with a broken cop with a suitcase full of baggage and a drinking problem.

Right?

Then again, if the suits manage to sniff their science experiment out, it’s not as if Joyce can just drop everything, pack up her boys, and go on the run. She knows that Hopper would most likely do just that - the feds come knocking and he drops all he knows like a hot potato and disappears with the little girl.

Deep down Joyce knows that, as much as she’s come to love Eleven in the short time she’s known her, she probably wouldn’t be able to make such a sacrifice for her if it came down to it. Hopper, on the other hand, sees his daughter in her and appears to already have made her his number one priority, if the lists are anything to go by. 

Because he has nothing else to live for which is, in this situation, a luxury.

TBC...


End file.
